Carry on Campus

Concealed or None at All? : Questioning Gun Policies on College Campuses

The recent slew of gun violence on school campuses has led many to take the issue into a more

serious perspective. The proponents of gun control look to keep the policies of gun control

the way they are. The more radical-minded however want the gun control to be more lax in to

the point college campuses would allow licensed people over the age of 21 to carry concealed

weapons on campus. This is the best way to go about the problem in my mind. This is because

it does in fact have a positive effect on the college campus. The weapons would likely deter

threats, increase response time of respondents of threats, and also allow for students to feel safer

knowing that those things would occur. The reasons to control guns on college campuses are few

and often over-stated to say the least.

Those in favor of gun control are in fact making the world of a college student less broad

because with less deterrents on campus of crime, there would also have to be more security

measures put in place that make the campus feel less open to both the students and the public

visitors. In his article Openness vs. Security On campus, M. Perry Chapman states, “College

Administrators need to be wary of the societal implications of sequestering populations.” If you

alienate a population, it now is less inclined on how to handle a situation in which it is threatened

because they have been coddled in the world of peace. We must leave the campuses of this world

open but also ensure the security with certain measures such as allowing people with concealed

weapons to peruse the campus freely (for the most part). Essentially, this possession of firearms

should be left to the enforcement agency that is used to protect the campus; The First-responders

if you will.

However it may be too late by the time that a first-responder actually gets to the scene of the...